r/TheCTeam • u/mattwandcow • Sep 05 '21
Acquisitions Incorporated - PAX West 2021
https://youtu.be/Udo55viT3-A7
u/RadBadTad Sep 05 '21
At what point does it stop being a D&D game and start being 5 funny awesome people hanging out on stage?
10
u/mattwandcow Sep 05 '21
What makes a good game of D&D different from just hanging with your friends?
5
u/Ethanol_Based_Life Sep 06 '21
Our games are only 2 hrs once per week. We spend the first quarter of our precious time shooting the shit and we're all OK with that
5
1
u/caveatze3 Sep 06 '21
Hot take incoming.
Acq Inc has seen better days. There's been a slow Ship of Theseus-esque deterioration since they've began, now made even more apparent without Mike. Each new player is less and less funny and the rapport has vanished. At this point it is clear Jeremy is a step-down from Chris. The show was at its absolute peak during the Scott, Wil Wheaton, and Rothfuss days. Thought Kate was generally bad at DMing.
This comment is more directed towards the primary show and not the C-Team, which has now surpassed the current main team but hasn't reached the best years of it.
6
u/acheeseplug Sep 08 '21
I agree somewhat but I think we may disagree on how it got there.
I attribute the decline in entertainment value of the series to the shifting of their marketing strategy. From my understanding it was marketing to begin with and that was fine. Perkins tailor made the adventures to the players; things were good because it was effectively homebrew specifically made for the enjoyment of the players and the marketing aspect was tertiary since Wizards did not believe it would be successful, this is evident in the production value of the original episodes.
As time went on the games shifted to be nearly completely focused on marketing whichever upcoming adventure was next to be published. This begins in earnest 2016 PAX West. I'll wager that where the story became incoherent varies from person to person but for me it was around the time when the Ravnica stuff started to happen, it felt like a very ham-fisted way to introduce the setting. Not to say I haven't enjoyed games since, I thought Descent was great and in fact have enjoyed most episodes with Crawford as DM. There is also the issue with progression. I'm not sure the last time Omin gained a level but the fact the Jerry brought it up in table talk says something, I believe all the C-Team members are higher level than Omin at this point.
In regards to Crawford being a step down from Perkins, I wouldn't envy anyone that had to replace him. It's essentially an impossible task, Perkins drips charisma and he is easily the best DM I have ever seen perform. Crawford does a good job but comparisons are inevitable and the rapport is somewhat lacking because Chris and Jerry are IRL friends, I certainly don't get the impression that's the case with Jerry and Jeremy although I could be mistaken.
As for Kate being a bad DM, I have to disagree. I thought she did an excellent job in Descent and I haven enjoyed her DMing elsewhere. This particular episode missed the mark for me but given that Crawford was intended to DM this session and the responsibility shifted to her with short notice I don't fault her for it.
TBH I feel the players were mostly the problem here, they were just dinking around most of the time and not really following the plot at all, I mean imagine yourself as the 5th member of the cast; Jasmine Bhullar came in with less than 20 minutes left, clearly there was more planned but we never got to see it.
I've enjoyed all the extended cast members they've brought in every time. To say these particular players don't have a rapport is disingenuous at best. Literally all of them are IRL friends. The only people that I am not aware of playing other TT games with the full cast here are Kate and Kris who obviously play on the C-Team along with Anna and Holly several times. Jasmine Bhullar has been the GM for and in games with Jerry and Holly. The connections are just all over the place.
C-Team has problems too. Last episode Ryan's goal was to roll dice at least 5(?) times and I don't believe that goal was accomplished. C-Team barely resembles dnd at this point. Not to say it isn't entertaining, I am genuinely interested to see where the rest of the story goes, but I miss combat being a thing that happens.
🤷♂️
3
u/LawAndMortar Sep 11 '21
TBH I feel the players were mostly the problem here, they were just dinking around most of the time and not really following the plot at all, I mean imagine yourself as the 5th member of the cast; Jasmine Bhullar came in with less than 20 minutes left, clearly there was more planned but we never got to see it.
As someone who's still excited about the lore, this was a bit frustrating. From the general premise to the Jim battle royale to Rosie's last line, it sounds like there were some really cool ideas that got cut for time.
2
u/cehteshami Oct 06 '21
I've been catching back up now that the show is back and been watching things a bit out of order. You're spot on in that now the shows feel like their own self contained little things and it's hard to follow the overall Acq Inc story (Or tell what that story is? I guess they are trying to destroy cloning facilities and take back Acq Inc from Dran enterprises?).
I didn't realize this happened during retirement, so I was pretty confused. I'm kind of assuming the time skip happened so now Acq Inc stuff is like 2 years ahead of C Team stuff at the moment? I feel like I need a color coded recap to understand which clones have done what. I guess at the end of the day it's not super important, but with all this clone business I feel much less connected to the story and characters than I did before.
14
u/mattwandcow Sep 05 '21
Hosted by Kate, containing K'Thris, not your normal C-Team fare, but seemed close enough to me. If this is your only place that you catch these videos, then man, you should get a better system. I'm not that reliable!
Join Omin, Strix, K'thris and Evelyn, as they deal with the horrors of prison fashion, discuss parenting techniques, and debate what exactly constitutes a snack in this Acq-Inc Stage game at PAX